SYSTEM AND METHOD TO FACILITATE REAL-TIME COMMUNICATIONS AND CONTENT SHARING AMONG USERS OVER A NETWORK

• US 20110173547A1
• Filed: 01/10/2011
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lewis, Michael Pescatello, Shaw, Cameron
• Granted Patent: US 9,893,908 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1085 involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A system and method to facilitate real-time communications and content sharing among users over a network are described. In one preferred embodiment, multiple links to content information are dynamically generated for a sender user. Responsive to selection of a link by the sender user, the link and associated metadata information are communicated to at least one recipient user engaged in the real-time communications session with the sender user.

Claims

1. A method to facilitate exchange of content among entities over a shared media interface comprising the steps of:

providing a shared media engine for providing a distributed user interaction platform that allows a plurality of users to maintain user profiles on a network database and share media via said platform;

providing a unique user interface to each user from among said plurality of users, said user interface comprising at least one user profile and a messaging interface configured for exchanging messages from a first user to other users from among said plurality of users;

selecting content by said first user via said user interface to share with said other users, thereby initiating content sharing;

dynamically generating a plurality of links, by said shared media engine, to selected content;

communicating said at least one link from among said plurality of links to at least one recipient user from among said plurality of users via said user interface; and

responsive to selection of said at least one link by said recipient user, communicating said link and associated metadata information to said at least one recipient user for allowing said at least one recipient user to access said content information.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said generating further comprises the steps of:

receiving a request for said content information from said sender user;

retrieving user-generated content preferences and user-generated media presets associated with said sender user from a user database; and

generating said plurality of links based on said user-generated content preferences, said user-generated media presets, and other content recommendations.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said dynamic generation is performed by taking into account content preferences and media presets as follows:

if said recipient user has programmed media presets, but has not generated any content preferences, generating additional links corresponding to content popularity;

if the sender user has programmed both media presets and content preferences, generating an equal number of links for the content preferences and media presets;

if the sender user has generated content preferences, but has not programmed media presets, generating additional links corresponding to preferences.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

presenting a user list to said sender user to enable selection of said at least one recipient user, said user list containing said at least one recipient user; and

receiving said selection of said at least one recipient user and a request to initiate said real-time communication session.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein, prior to said selection of said at least one recipient user, said at least one recipient user is available to participate in said real-time communication session.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said communicating further comprises the steps of:

inserting said link and said associated metadata in a real-time message displayed in a message window for said sender user; and

transmitting said real-time message to said at least one recipient user.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said associated metadata information includes data pertaining to said content information to enable said at least one recipient user to review said data and to make a decision whether to accept or decline said content information.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one recipient user can access said at least one audio file from said sender user after said real-time communications session has ended by activating said hyperlink and initiating a file transfer from said remote content server, wherein said file transfer is selected from:

downloading said at least one audio file from said remote content server after said real-time communications sessions has ceased; and

streaming said at least one audio from said remote content server after said real-time communication session has ceased via a web streaming protocol.

9. A system for exchanging content among entities over a shared media interface comprising:

a shared media engine for providing a distributed user interaction platform allowing a plurality of users to maintain user profiles on a network database and share media via said platform;

a database operatively coupled with said shared media engine for storing a unique user interface for each user from among said plurality of users, said user interface comprising;

at least one user profile and a messaging interface configured for exchanging messages from a first user to other users from among said plurality of users;

a content selection tool for selecting content by said first user via said user interface to share with said other users, thereby initiating content sharing;

wherein the shared media engine is configured for dynamically generating a plurality of links to selected content;

wherein the shared media engine is configured for communicating said at least one link from among said plurality of links to at least one recipient user from among said plurality of users via said user interface; and

wherein the shared media engine is configured for communicating said link and associated metadata information to said at least one recipient user upon selection of said at least one link by said recipient user, thereby allowing said at least one recipient user to access said content information.

10. The system according to claim 9,

wherein the shared media transaction engine is configured for receiving a request for said content information from said sender user;

wherein the shared media transaction engine is configured for retrieving user-generated content preferences and user-generated media presets associated with said sender user from a user database; and

wherein the shared media transaction engine is configured for generating said plurality of links based on said user-generated content preferences, said user-generated media presets, and other content recommendations.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein said dynamic generation is performed by taking into account content preferences and media presets as follows:

if said recipient user has programmed media presets, but has not generated any content preferences, generating additional links corresponding to content popularity;

if the sender user has programmed both media presets and content preferences, generating an equal number of links for the content preferences and media presets;

if the sender user has generated content preferences, but has not programmed media presets, generating additional links corresponding to preferences.

12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

wherein the shared media engine is configured for presenting a user list to said sender user to enable selection of said at least one recipient user, said user list containing said at least one recipient user; and

wherein the shared media engine is configured for receiving said selection of said at least one recipient user and a request to initiate said real-time communication session.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein the shared media engine is configured for inserting said link and said associated metadata in a real-time message displayed in a message window for said sender user;

and transmitting said real-time message to said at least one recipient user.

14. The method according to claim 9, wherein said associated metadata information includes data pertaining to said content information to enable said at least one recipient user to review said data and to make a decision whether to accept or decline said content information.

15. A method to facilitate exchange of content among entities over a shared media interface comprising the steps of:

providing a shared media engine for providing a distributed user interaction platform that allows a plurality of users to maintain user profiles on a network database and share media via said platform;

dynamically generating a plurality of links to content information for a sender user; and

responsive to selection of a link of said plurality of links, communicating said link and associated metadata information to at least one recipient user engaged in said real-time communication session with said sender user for allowing said at least one recipient user to access said content information,

wherein said at least one recipient user can access said at least one audio file from said sender user after said real-time communications session has ended by activating said hyperlink and initiating a file transfer from said remote content server, wherein said file transfer is selected from;

downloading said at least one audio file from said remote content server after said real-time communications sessions has ceased; and

streaming said at least one audio from said remote content server after said real-time communication session has ceased via a web streaming protocol.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the steps of:

presenting a user list to said sender user to enable selection of said at least one recipient user, said user list containing said at least one recipient user; and

receiving said selection of said at least one recipient user and a request to initiate said real-time communication session.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein, prior to said selection of said at least one recipient user, said at least one recipient user is available to participate in said real-time communication session.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein said generating further comprises the steps of:

receiving a request for said content information from said sender user;

retrieving user-generated content preferences and user-generated media presets associated with said sender user from a user database; and

generating said plurality of links based on said user-generated content preferences, said user-generated media presets, and other content recommendations.

19. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the steps of:

presenting said plurality of links in a content window to enable selection of said link by said sender user.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein said communicating further comprises the steps of:

inserting said link and said associated metadata in a real-time message displayed in a message window for said sender user; and

transmitting said real-time message to said at least one recipient user.